It is a good place isn't it
Essex, and surprisingly easy to forget you're in the middle of London too
Thanks
Wurzel, that Bittern was particularly posey, I think he knew he had an audience
!
Thanks
David, the Parakeets down here now are about as common as Feral pigeons with several communal roosts numbering into the thousands I believe. You can go into Hyde park with food now and instead of having Pigeons landing on you, you get the parakeets. The RSPB website states there's 8600 breeding pairs in the UK..... a report I found in the Daily Mail gives a figure of 50,000
whatever the truth is, there's a lot of em!
Thanks
Neil, I shall continue with the birds until the butterflies return, hopefully only a few months... but not too soon like last spring, 20 degrees in February just isn't right!
November (continued)
As much as I’ve wanted to, I’ve been unable to make a trip to Bookham to check up on the hibernating White Admiral larvae and do some Hairstreak egg searches, so my recent trips out have continued to be primarily birding.
I stayed local with on the
17th November with a couple of hours wandering around Walthamstow Marshes. Now winters arrived there’s a lot less people around and I feel a lot more comfortable walking around pointing a camera in various directions. Bird wise there wasn’t a great deal around, many of the winter visitors don’t seem to have arrived yet, no winter thrushes around but there might have been a few White Wagtail mixed in with our resident Pieds.
Elsewhere the only thing that sat (or didn't swim to fast) for me was a Dabchick (or Little grebe in new money).
On the
19th I went up to Chestunt for a couple of hours exploring the lea valley wetlands up there. Again there wasn’t a great deal around. Great-crested Grebe were in their less flamboyant winter dress, the odd cormorant would get spooked as I walked round a corner but the best spot of the day was a pair of Treecreeper. Sadly I was losing the light by then so the resulting cropped pics aren’t the best in the world!
On the
20th I had a dentist appointment so once again I had to stay local. Another wander round Walthamstow Marshes gave me a few more targets to point my camera at. A Song Thrush enjoying it’s morning bath
The Pied/White Wagtails were still around but today had been joined by a flock of Linnet.
Before leaving for the horrors of my impending appointment I had enough time to pop my head into the adjacent Walthamstow Wetlands. It’s a popular hangout for the resident population of Cormorant (their big feet really aren’t made for perching)
And a Heron took off at the wrong moment, immediately being mobbed by a particularly persistent and angry looking Black-headed Gull.
I'm also happy to report my day had a happy ending, the appointment was swift and pain free